Ready for Blast Off 7/14/12

We just completed our final week of training at home. It was a good week and I am happy with where we are at as a team with two weeks to go before our first game. Throughout the year we have emphasized fundamentals like good body position in the water, strong legs and focused passing. These remain vital for our success; however another set of fundamentals - the “intangibles” may be even more critical. The three intangibles that I want to write about today are trust, responsibility and a positive belief system. I believe that this team is strong in all three areas. A lack of any of these three intangibles could literally sink our team. The heat of the battle is the true test for these intangibles. If we are as strong as I believe that we are than these intangibles will push us towards victory at the Olympic Games.



The first intangible is trust. Relationships are at the heart of any team. These relationships grow and thrive with trust. Everyone likes to talk about team chemistry and how important that is to any team’s success. The truth is that good team chemistry revolves around this trust factor. The players must first care and respect each other enough to want to build this trust. Then in an environment where they spend time together the experiences they share together will help to build this trust. Sometimes these life experiences are difficult (adversity) and other times they are fun and exciting. Most of all it means putting in the time together, sharing a common goal and being willing to be open to respect your team mates and their differences. All of the experiences that we share help to grow trust in each other. As the trust grows the team gets stronger. There is no doubt that we are becoming a better team. The relationships we share are built around trust, respect and love for one another.



The second intangible is responsibility. Each of us (players and coaches) must be able to accept responsibility for his actions. Taking responsibility will build trust and strengthen the chemistry. This is very difficult to master. Often, it is an easier path to blame others and shift the responsibility from ourselves. It is especially easy to blame officials in our subjective game. I struggled with this for years. Our 1984 Olympic team should have won the gold medal. We were ahead 5 – 2 late in the third period in the Olympic final. We were in control of the game, however we finished in a 5 – 5 tie allowing Yugoslavia to claim the gold based on goal differential. The result was difficult to swallow and for years it was easy to blame the officials. As I grew as a person, I came to realize that I had no one to blame but myself. We had our chances to win that game outright. We blew opportunities on our 6 on 5 and we played to protect a lead rather than to win that game. There is a mirror test that works pretty well. Here is the way that this test works. Look in the mirror and ask that person you see if they are doing everything that they can do to make the team better. Ask that person you see what they can do to become better. Everyday we are trying to build on this principle. As we all accept responsibility better we become stronger. Teams that accept responsibility as individuals and collectively as a whole will feel more in control of their own destiny and are more successful.



Finally, one of the most important fundamental intangibles is a positive belief system. Do the athletes believe in themselves? Do they have confidence and truly believe that they can win the gold? There are countless stories in sports about teams that never should have won the World Series, the Super Bowl or the Olympic gold but did because they believed that they could. Many of these teams could not have possibly matched the other team with talent but they still managed to find a way to win. Certainly, one of the biggest factors in building this belief system is to have small successes that build the confidence inside and tell us that our goals are really possible. Our wins last month over Croatia and Hungary certainly gave us a little taste of that success. Also, we have ten players that were a part of our amazing run to the silver medal in Beijing. This team already knows that we can beat anybody in the world. This is a beautiful thing and puts us in a good place to do just that. I certainly believe in this team. I know that we can win the Gold and become the best team ever in USA Water Polo history!



Our fundamentals are strong in and out of the water. It is an exciting time as we are now on the launch pad ready for blast off. We fly to London on Monday and will soon have the opportunity to live out our Olympic dream and win the gold.



See you at the pool.



Coach